Fireworks sales likely to boom just before 4th

White tents draped with patriotic banners, with posted signs promising the lowest prices in town, are popping up again along local thoroughfares and intersections.

By Fred HiersStaff writer

For some people, fireworks have become as much a part of patriotic celebrations as hotdogs and apple pie.White tents draped with patriotic banners, with posted signs promising the lowest prices in town, are popping up again along local thoroughfares and intersections. The tents are packed with fireworks, and each temporary shop will sell many firecrackers, sparklers and rockets with formidable names like “Take it to the Limit” and “Burnin' Rings of Fire.”The tents are erected more than a week before the Fourth of July holiday. In a day the shelves are built and stocked.This is Casey Sellers' second year overseeing sales at a tent at Southwest 17th Street and Southwest 19th Avenue Road.Last week, most people came into the tent to compare prices, occasionally buying small novelties and sparklers, Sellers said.Most of the people doing the comparison shopping will be back to buy, he said.Most people or families will spend between $60 and $120 for fireworks, about the same as last year. Most will use a credit card, he said.A week before the holiday, Sellers said he was getting about 20 customers a day. But a few days before the holiday there will be so many customers “you can't even count. … It will be so busy you barely have a chance to sit,” said Sellers, a Florida certified fire inspector.Sparklers and smoke devices and noisemakers are legal to use. Many other types can't be sold, bought or used — although there are exceptions. For example, fireworks can be used to scare off birds from a farm or fish hatchery.Each sales tent posts Florida's laws about fireworks, and customers sign a document saying their use of fireworks will fall within the legal exceptions.Sellers admits this is a legal tap dance, and everyone involved gives a figurative or literal wink as they sign the documents.“I even have cops coming in and buying stuff,” he said, later describing the process as “a sham.”Joan Buchanan, owner of Wagon Farm in southwest Ocala, laughs at the idea of scaring off birds with fireworks.“I don't know anybody, not any farmers, who use (fireworks) to scare of birds,” said the blueberry farmer.Birds eat less than 1 percent of her crop, she said. Her family has also grown watermelons, and loss to birds has also been negligible.Ed Harrison is a semi-retired science and chemistry teacher who has helped his stepson set up his fireworks tent for the past 10 years.This year the tent is on Silver Springs Boulevard near Big Lots.Tents are rented and typically cost about $3,000 to use.He said that fireworks family packs — something for everyone — are popular.“When it comes to fireworks, the Chinese are the best in the world,” he said.Also popular are cakes, which in the fireworks industry are a series of mortars that share a single fuse system and send projectiles into the night sky.More costly fireworks packs range into the hundreds of dollars. They often are purchased by more than one individual or family and then shared or used collectively.As for the risks associated by the fireworks, Harrison said, “There are risks with everything we do. Sometimes you have to give people a little freedom.”He also said that modern fireworks are safer than they were years ago, and that nothing flammable remains of them to start a fire once they explode.“And people are more safety conscious when they set fireworks off than when they burn a pile of leaves,” he said.His stepson, Ricky Jones, is an Ocala firefighter.His uncle introduced him to the business of selling fireworks.“Usually things that are more fun are a little dangerous,” Jones said. “(But) I've never had to put out a fire started by fireworks.”David Dillard and his wife, Joy, are from Casselberry. They sleep in a small tent by the larger white tent that holds their fireworks inventory.They are paid on commission based on what they sell. They are also the night watchmen, providing security to the business.“It's still slow, maybe five customers a day,” David Dillard said on Thursday, while sitting in a lawn chair inside the white tent in front of a portable fan. “Maybe two of those customers will buy.”His wife sat in her chair next to him and had her own portable fan.This Wednesday and Thursday will account for about 70 percent of the tent's business. About 25 percent of sales will be cakes, another 50 percent will be mortars and canister shells, and the remaining 25 percent will be family fireworks packs and smaller fireworks devices geared toward children.Typically, customers will spend $200, Dillard said.Brett Hale, 32, is a long-haul truck owner/operator. On Thursday he visited the fireworks tent near Southwest 19th Avenue Road.His girlfriend has a 6-year-old son, and Hale wants to buy enough fireworks for him to enjoy.“I might just buy the family pack,” he said.He said he will be back on the road by Independence Day and will set off the fireworks early. He might even come back for more. He plans to spend between $50 and $100.Melissa Smith has a 2-year-old son. She will buy sparklers for him. Before having a child, she and her husband would buy at least $50 in fireworks to celebrate the holiday. When the child is grown, she said, she and her husband, a firefighter, will probably ratchet up their purchases again.Marion County Fire Marshal Paul Nevels said sometimes children use fireworks indoors, without parents there to supervise them. Every couple of years he's called to such an indoor fire, he said.Brush fires from suspected fireworks are routine, though, Nevels said, and each year firefighters have to put them out.As for people saying they will use fireworks only on their farms and fish hatcheries, Nevels said: “We enforce the laws that are on the books. I do not take it personal.”Contact Fred Hiers at 867-4157 or fred.hiers@starbanner.com.